This invention relates to telephones and more particularly to a one touch button dialing circuit for a universal number in a telephone for rapidly accessing an emergency service, the telephone number not requiring user programming and being non-volatile in that it is not affected by power outages.
Although many conventional telephones have the feature of one touch button or automatic dialing whereby a telephone number may be automatically dialed merely by mashing a single touch key or button, such features include a memory chip which must be programmed by the user. These systems use volatile memory requiring electrical power to keep the information stored. If the electrical power is removed, all information stored in the memory is lost. Most telephones require the use of batteries as the power source to retain the telephone number in memory. Others, such as those having automatic answering features or lights, have power cords which connect into an electrical outlet and this retains the information in memory. Some of the latter include memory backup batteries. If, however, a power failure occurs and/or a battery depletion, the programmed telephone numbers are lost from memory and must be restored in memory by reprogramming.
It is well known that some people, although proficient in the use of the telephone, have difficulties in programming numbers into such telephone memory. For example, many infirm and elderly people find it extremely difficult to perform the programming task, yet these are the very people who require a quick or one touch automatic dialing of an emergency telephone number.